Chandigarh, July 11 -- The Punjab government will roll out a state-wide Early Childhood Development (ECD) strategy from August 1, bringing together nutrition, health, early learning and parenting support under a single framework with a special focus on the first 1,000 days (33 months) of a child's life. Sheena Aggarwal, director of social security, women and child development, Punjab, said the initiative aimed to transform Anganwadi centres into holistic child development hubs, expanding their role beyond food distribution to include early stimulation, growth monitoring, pre-school education and parental counselling. Officials said the strategy was based on scientific evidence showing that 75% of brain development took place during the first two years of life and nearly 85% by the age of six, making early interventions crucial. As part of the programme, Anganwadi workers will encourage parents of children below three years to spend 10-15 minutes every day talking, singing, reading stories and playing with their children. The guidance will be provided through home visits, caregiver day events, village health nutrition days and WhatsApp-based learning modules. As many as 26,209 Anganwadi workers have already been connected digitally, enabling nearly 1.6 lakh parents to receive home-learning content through WhatsApp. Officials have identified low birth weight, recurrent illnesses and inadequate food intake as three major causes of childhood malnutrition....